by Newbiel
"I didn't forget, don't worry grandma. I'm going to my room now, I need to shower and then study."
"Alright Dear, see you later." Said Diane while evaluating him critically, something that Nathaniel didn't notice because he was busy taking off his sweaty clothes.
He always was cute with his kind smile, charming face and sparkling blue eyes but now that he is working the hell out, everything changes. His face lost his emaciated appearance and became handsome. His always present smile, blue eyes and thin eyebrow were giving off a kind and trustworthy aura. His carve body with his 6 pack, strong shoulders and unblemish skin could make every woman drooling. Two things could be better though she noticed. His long blond hair needed a fresh cut which she will get covered on thursday. The second thing was his skin was a little "too" white, he needed to work a tan. She started to consider sending him to a warm country for a couple of weeks to fix that.
Her evaluation finished and satisfied by her conclusion, she got back to organising the party, focusing particularly on promising young women for her grandson.
******
The next day, Nathaniel was sitting on the beach, the weather was slowly turning warmer and since a few days ago, he started to take his morning 10 miles run outside. That was more exhilarating to run on the outside than making repetitive rounds around the mansion. Moreover the beach was not that far from his grandparents home, at most 1 miles. Now that he could defend himself, he started going out more. The instinct of Marc to never be defenseless was ingrained deep in his mind. The sensation of his muscle atrophied and the feeling to be trapped in his own body was still a deep scar in his psyche.
Sitting in front of the sea, he uses the sound of the moving water, the flying bird to soothe his mind. He had the urge to start playing music again but force himself to wait. He wanted to play piano with his mom. He knew that after the accident she stopped playing and that made him feel guilty. His moms were coming every week-end whatever the work that they have and resent the fact that they could not come more. He wanted to surprise them and play again for them this saturday before the party, maybe like that he could heal his mom.
Self conscious, he ran his hands through his hair. He developed this habit since going to the barber two days ago. His messy shoulder length hair were now elegantly cut, framing his charming face perfectly.
Eyes closed, he sensed somebody approaching him. Since he correctly incorporated Marc memories, he could now use his radar like hearing even if he had a reach of no more than 50 yard, it was nothing compared to Marc ranged had his peak but it was encouraging.Opening his eyes and turning his head on the side, he could now see who was coming.
She was a stunning woman around twenty years old. Long blond hair tied in a ponytail, blue eyes, wearing a conservative flowery dress, she was positively a stunner. Nathaniel saw her before the last few days, she was keeping to herself, sitting on the beach, seemingly sad. They never interact before outside of a few nods when he was running past her.
"Hi, sorry to interrupt you but I wanted to know if i could sit here for a moment?" She asks shyly which makes Nathaniel smile.
"Of course, feel free to sit wherever you want, I don't own this beach" He said with mirth, making her laugh in relief.
"Taylor."
"Nathaniel."
"Wow, never met someone who was named Nathaniel. From where is that from?"
"My mom's family heritage is french, I had a great grandfather with that name and she always liked it."
"That explains it, I like it too, it's different."
"Thanks."
"Do you live here?"
"No, I'm from New-York but I spent the last couple of months here with my grandparents who lived here. And you?"
"Neither do I, I'm a singer and I'm going on tour in two weeks so my manager rented me a house here to rest and since I have broken things up with my boyfriend, I thought I could use some alone time." She said.
"Sorry to hear that. How does that alone time work for you so far?"
"I'm bored out of my mind to be honest" She answered with a laugh.
"Well, there is a party in my grandparents house tomorrow night, you will need something nice to wear but I believe it would be fun so you should come." He offers with his trademark smile.
"What! But why would you invite me? We don't know each other." She shouted in surprise.
"You seem nice and I believe you could use some fun after a break up."
Seeing that she was going to argue, Nathaniel added.
"This is not an offer out of pity you know, I don't know anybody here too and I could use a friend around my age."
"Very well I'll come. I need to go now to find something appropriate to wear. You need to give me the address and the hour."
Nathaniel gave her the information that she needed, which she duly noted on her phone. Seeing her leave, Nathaniel remembered something that he was going to forget.
"What is your last name? I need it to add you to the list." Ask Nathaniel.
"My last name is Swift. Taylor Swift." She answered with a happy smile before leaving.
Chapter 12: :
Hampton. 17/05/2012. 18:30.
"My baby!" Said his mom when she hugged him.
Nathaniel and his grandmother were talking about the party when they heard the chopper landing. They thought it was Robert coming home, they didn't think that he would come home with his moms.They were supposed to come tomorrow to help with the party so seeing them here now was surprising. Releasing him, he got hugged immediately by his other mom, he then closed the round of hugging when he took his grandfather in his arm, noticing his fake pained wince.
"It was planned that I was to fly back here this evening so I thought we could chopper pool." He said in an unemotional voice which fools no-one in the room.
The relation between him and the lesbian couple was tight to put it mildly and with Karine especially, by doing that he was clearly a sign on the right direction. A gesture like that would have been totally inconceivable 4 years ago. They were clearly all trying to make their family work which made Nathaniel's heart warm. They all decided to not put him on the spot and keep exchanging greetings.
"Ah yes grandma, I met someone while I was running today and I invited her to the party. We need to add her to the entry list." Said Nathaniel which caused every conversation to die down, his family all looking at him.
"Someone?" Ask her grandma.
"Her?" add Karine with a smirk which makes him roll his eyes in amusement. "My baby boy is growing so fast, already bringing a girl home. I'm so proud."
"That's not like that mom, we just talked and she seems nice so I invite her to come." He clarified.
"Dear, I know that you're kind but you can't invite random people to come. All guests are from the elite and are extremely wealthy or from family who wield high authority in the country. That would not be nice of her to drop her in this environnement." Said Diane in a caring voice.
"I don't think that will be a problem, granny, she wore expensive clothes and jewelry on her. Moreover, she told me that she is a singer and she's going on tour in the coming weeks so she must be relatively known."
Mary and his grandfather make eye contact hearing that.
"A female singer? What was her name sweetie?" Ask Mary.
"Taylor Swift. I never heard of her but I didn't have time to get in touch with the trending music so it doesn't mean anything. I was planning to google her when I have the time." Precise Nathaniel in front of his startle family.
"Taylor Swift? Blond hair, blue eyes, 5"10 , extremely pretty?" Questioned Mary rapidly.
"Everything seems right. I take it she's well known?"
"Well known doesn't even cover it, she's like the number one female popstar." Clarified Mary.
"Well done grandson, I could use your friendship to make her sign with us." Said Robert with a gleeful voice.
Nathaniel starts to frown and turn to his grandmother.
"Grandma, can y
ou make grandpa not do that and not bother my guest please?" Ask Nathaniel with a brilliant smile.
"Don't worry dear, I will make sure he doesn't even come near her." She answered in a chilling tone looking at her husband instantly.
"You could have asked me directly, you know." He said in a wrong tone, his voice gloomy.
"No need, I know who wields real power here." Nathaniel said which triggers a round of laughter from all womens in the room.
"Smart ass grandson" They all hear him grumble, triggering a second round of laughter.
"He's our son, what were you expecting dad exactly?" Mary ask proudly.
"I wasn't expecting he would be like that to be honest but I can't say I'm disappointed. By the way, did Nathaniel learn to fight before the accident?" Robert asked in a neutral tone, spying Nathaniel in the corner of his eyes in the hope to catch an expression.
Not expecting the question, Mary and Karine looked at each other before turning back to Robert. Nathaniel just turned his head to the side and knitted his eyebrows.
"No, never. He never asked for it and we never saw the point of offering it, you know how I feel about violence. Why are you asking dad?" Mary asked, puzzled.
"Nathaniel? Were you ever trained to fight by someone and hide it from your mothers? Please be honest with me, I'm not trying to punish you or blame you for anything, I just want to know."
"No grandpa, really, I never been trained by anyone except your two bodyguards. What is this all about?" Nathaniel ask. He was being honest after all, what he knew about combat wasn't taught to him but inherited in a way.
Nathaniel had made some good progress about integrating Marc's memories as his own. That was in fact the main reason he had asked his grandfather for Amal and Jean. Since a not insignificant part of Marc's life was about fighting, he thought he could integrate those memories faster by fighting and the results were beyond his expectations. Not only has Nathaniel received Marc fighting experience, he has also received his instinct which was incredible.
When confronted against Jean and Amal, two experienced fighters using two different fighting styles, Nathaniel could anticipate with incredible accuracy what they were going to do and how to counter it. It wasn't instantaneous either, he got beat up and smack down many more than once at first as he never had to fight himself. It happened gradually in a span of two weeks where he was hitting the ground, getting back up to end up smack on the ground again. He wasn't that surprised that his grandfather learned about it and ended up curious and suspicious.
"Yes, I would like to know that myself." Mary asked, looking at her father.
"Wait, they don't know?" He asked, looking at Nathaniel.
"No, I didn't tell them, it was already hard enough to convince them to let me do it, I wasn't going to tell them the number of times I was knocked down."
"Knocked down!? For god sake Nathaniel, you just came out of a four years coma! You told us you were going to take things easy!" Karine shouted unhappily.
"And that's the reason I didn't say anything." Nathaniel sighed, looking at his grandfather.
"I'm not talking about this, I'm talking about the fact that in the span of a few weeks, you managed to beat them even when they were teaming against you. Amal is sure that you receive military training and I learn to trust his opinion in those matters."
"No, I didn't grandpa." Nathaniel said.
He was skirting the truth here but he was also being honest. Technically, he never went into the military, Marc did. That pained him to hide things from his family but at this time, he wasn't confident about talking about it and to be honest, he wasn't trusting his grandparents as of now. He also chose to be honest because he wasn't confident in his capacity to lie, especially against his grandmother and grandfather.
"That's simply not possible, I'm afraid Amal is wrong. There is no way that Nathaniel could have a training like you describe Robert." Karine shook her head with certainty.
"And why is that?" Robert asked, throwing a level glance at Karine.
"She's right dad, Nathaniel always been with us and never got out of the house much. He would never have the time to get a training like you describe without us taking notice of it."
"Then Nathaniel, how can you explain that in the span of a few weeks you manage to overpowered two experiences special forces and you show fighting technique coming from the SEALS and Delta Force?" Robert questioned.
"Oh, when I was starting to practice, I looked on the internet for different fighting styles to find one that would benefit me and I ended up using a mix of some of them." Nathaniel explains, once again he chooses not to lie.
"That sounds plausible." Diane nodded, Karine and Mary nodding along.
Nathaniel could see that his grandfather wasn't convinced but ultimately, he decided to let it go. They passed the rest of the evening talking about the party the next night.
Chapter 13: :
Hampton. 18/05/2012. 21:05.
Nathaniel noticed that something was wrong in this party. Since the beginning of the evening, he was near the lobby, welcoming people and presenting himself. He knew that was the objective of the evening, getting to know people with influence for the future. He scanned the people who were coming paying close attention to their aura.
Now that he had more energy in him, Nathaniel could use the sight more often and without feeling exhausted afterward and so he had used it on every guest he met. The majority of their guests had grey aura which was the most common aura he had seen. A few of them had blue aura and even someone who had a green one. He didn't know yet what it entailed but he wanted to talk to that person, a middle aged man coming with his wife.
He got the not surprising but saddening presence of a dozen black aura. With so many wealthy people in the house tonight, that was to be expected. The worst aura was coming from an old man who was presented by his grandma as a philanthropist which was wrong on so many levels. He memorised the name of that person to talk about it with his mom. He could not tell her what he saw obviously but he would work something out.
That was not even the wrong thing he noticed in this party. While the majority of the guests were middle aged or elder like his grandparents, he noticed 8 people who were between eighteen and twenty, They were all women. Not only that, they were all dressed in revealing and sexy outfits and they were all charming. Some were kind enough while others looked at him like he was food which he did not enjoy. Excusing himself to his grandma, he went to his moms who look like they were ending a conversation with some people.
"Were you aware of what grandma planned?" Asked Nathaniel without preamble.
"Aware of what?" Ask Karine, seemingly lost.
Looking with attention at their expression, he saw that they genuinely had no idea what he was talking about.
"Well, of all of the people here, there are only 8 people around my age."
"That's not that surprising sweetie, the other would be in college or working."
"No mom that's not it. They are all girls, every single one of them."
Surprised for a second, they turned to look at each other and then smiled while Karine hid a laugh behind her hand.
"Seems that mom wants to have great grandchildren sooner than later." Said Mary with a soft laugh.
"I'm sixteen!" Said Nathaniel in an astonished tone.
"I know sweetie, your grandma is sometimes over the top but she means well and she loves you very much so don't resent her. Don't go rebuking these girls because something they don't know about, go talk to them and be nice, you could make friends." Said Karine in a meditative tone.
"I don't think they know that you are sixteen when I see them looking at you. To their defense, you look like you are eighteen or nineteen years old rather than sixteen now." Add Mary while looking at the young womens. "Here sweetie looked at her, she's gorgeous and she is currently devouring you with her eyes. It's understandable, you are very elegant tonight baby"
He really was, his grandmother's taste
in clothes was exquisite, she had picked a tuxedo for him from a private tailor which was worth it. Even him who didn't really care about clothes agreed that he was looking good in it.
"Yeah I know, she's looking at me like I'm food." Said Nathaniel with a pain expression.
Before he could add something, they were interrupted by Diane calling him to salute a guest. Excusing himself, he got back to the lobby, nodding to people on the way.
"Your guest is here dear." Said his grandmother, nodding to the approaching figure.
Without makeup and dress normally, she was already a very pretty woman. Tonight Taylor was wearing a flowing white dress which suit her form perfectly. Her long blond hair was untied tonight which had elegance to the whole set up. She was literally enchanting.
Welcoming her, he starts to take her inside the mansion while talking.
After coming to welcome her; Nathaniel and Taylor were currently talking pleasantly with each other and enjoying the party. Proof of Taylor fame, they had been interrupted a couple of times for an autograph or a picture which she accepted good naturally every time. People even asked Nathaniel to join in on the picture which he declined, he didn't want to see them appearing in the newspaper, hurting Taylor reputation.
"By the way, what's up with the name of his party? Who came back from the coma?" Taylor was curious after seeing another banner. .
"I'am."
"You? Why were you in a coma and how long were you in it?" She asked.
"I got hit by a car on the road because of a drunk driver. I was for 4 years in a coma give or take." Said Nathaniel in a flat tone.
"That's horrible! Wait, what? How old were you at the time?" She asks surprise.
"Twelve." He answered.
"Oh my god, that's terrible." She said in an appalled tone which turned in disbelief a second later." But… that means that you are at most sixteen!"
"Well yes, I am." He said, still in a flat tone. He was starting to fear that this reaction would become an occurrence. `Maybe I should not have worked out that much.' He regrets in his mind.